Water guns have been known for many years. Every child has, on one occasion or another, had the opportunity and the joy of pulling the trigger of a water gun and drenching a friend with a splash of H.sub.2 O. The friend, more often than not, survived the attack only to seek vengeance with a hail of squirts from a water gun of his or her own.
The basic water gun usually takes the form of a pistol or rifle with a mechanism to directly pump water at a target or by pressurization prior to shooting. The gun barrel is aimed at a target and the stream of water released.
Some toy water guns have been developed with nozzles that can be rotated to shoot a stream of water at varying angular directions. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,153 describes a water gun with a directional nozzle that is connected to a handle by a belt, gear, chain or other rotatable drive mechanism. The user's rotating of the handle causes the nozzle to rotate to the same extent.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 24,208 shows a toy water pistol which has a control knob attached to the nozzle. The direction of the nozzle, and thereby the direction of the water, may be changed relative to the direction in which the pistol is pointed by manually turning the control knob.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,888,172 shows a toy water gun where the direction of the water stream can be adjusted up and down by manipulating the handle which is linked to the nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,146,911 describes a water gun that has a multi-directional nozzle. The nozzle is adjusted by manipulating a knob which acts on a belt to change the orientation of the nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,318 shows a toy water pistol with a simple mechanism for adjusting the direction of the water stream by turning a cylindrical knob that is attached to the nozzle.
None of the prior art teaches the emitting of a stream of water in a sweeping side-to-side motion by the mere actuation of the squirting mechanism.